Fit Review: B|X at Brick New York

On a day where the media seemed especially hell-bent on revealing the darker side of CrossFit, we did what any intrepid journalists would do: We went and tried a class ourselves.

Only slightly intimidated by all the press, we arrived at Brick New York, which opened in Chelsea this August, ready to drown in our own sweat. We’d heard intense things about their boot camp meets CrossFit program: B|X, which originated at Brick’s West Hollywood location.

After a brief intro to the WOD, or “workout of the day” for us CrossFit newbs, we got warmed up with some jogging, hurdles, plyometric moves and even some somersaults. It was at that moment I knew this was not going to be your typical boot camp experience — it was going to be way more fun! Seriously, when was the last time you did a somersault past the age of 10?

The actual workout consisted of three 10-minute AMRAP stations (that’s CrossFit lingo for “as many rounds as possible”). The first round was 40 jump rope single unders with a burpee thrown in every 10 jumps (keeping the handles in your hands for speed), followed by 30 mountain climbers and 40 bicycles. All this was to be completed as many times as possible without passing out, essentially, in 10 minutes.

Photo by Alexandra Orlov

I grabbed a rope and decided to go jump for jump with the CrossFit bro to my right, who I decided I could totally take. (I did grow up as a member of a nationally recognized competition jump rope team, after all!) Seven and a half rounds in and feeling totally spent with burning abs, it clicked that I had two more 10-minute stations to go. But knowing everyone else in the room was struggling, but still moving, helped me keep going. It started to make sense why camaraderie is considered a big draw of the CrossFit experience. Together, we made it to our first 60-second rest period.

The next two stations included walking lunges with 10- to 20-pound slam balls overhead, med ball push-ups, Spiderman planks (feet propped up on that same med ball if you dared) and wall ball sit-ups. Not to mention the squat jumps. Oh, the squat jumps.

But that’s not all, folks. Just as we thought we had reached the cool-down, our super gung-ho trainer Will ordered four minutes of Tabata-style wall sits (that’s 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off) — just in case our quads weren’t already on fire.

The trainers at Brick are all about efficiency, so you can count on them to utilize every. single. minute. And every single muscle. Trust us, you’ll be feeling it the next day, but we’re pretty sure you won’t be meeting Uncle Rhabdo.